AS THE SPARKS FLY UPWARD

Bernard Woodruff should have known better than to expect anything but disaster from a visit to his wife’s indolent but good-natured brother, Snooky. In a cabin in the Vermont woods, the irrepressible Snooky rhapsodizes about the simple pleasures of country living while preparing gourmet meals and falling in love with Sarah Tucker, a young woman whose family life is anything but simple. Bernard’s depression at being away from home only deepens after he meets Sarah’s assortment of relatives. There’s a wealthy widowed aunt with a much younger admirer, an eccentric nature-loving spinster, a young photographer, and a blustering hunter, none of whom Bernard finds at all to his liking. But when Bernard never likes anyone, as his wife, Maya, keeps pointing out in an attempt to save Snooky’s bruised feelings. Bernard is still grumbling when he stumbles on a corpse in the woods. It turns out to be the remains of the young man who had just become engaged to Sarah’s rich aunt, and everyone in the family falls under suspicion. Against his will, Bernard is drawn into the murder investigation. By the end, he and Snooky join forces to track down an elusive and unlikely killer.